Two Mothers, Two Sons, at the Lawrence Public Library (April 2007) included the work of two artists, Lora Jost and Sara Stalling, and their sons Nicholai (age 5) and Maya (age 6).

Lora Jost writes: “I enjoy making art about experiences that move me, be they mundane, whimsical, or socially urgent. How can one not be moved by the everyday, sometimes dull but never predictable world of parenting? The work I show here is based, in part, on life with my family, from the odd experience of standing together at night in the light of a search helicopter, to watching my husband and son tend a burn pile, to the process of sketching my son while he plays and draws. I love to watch him draw, and making art together, an ever-evolving process, is a great joy. Nicholai likes to try out the tools that I work with; he experiments with new ways of shaping and placing expressive marks. Often when we make art together, we each do our own thing yet share the quiet moment. Nicholai also enjoys drawing with his dad, and their drawings show an interplay of ideas and imagery shared from their playing together.”

Sara Stalling writes: “I am an art teacher, a student of art therapy, a mother of one, and an artist at heart. I believe that the making of art has a profound way of describing through image what most of us feel but cannot quite explain. My art is about emotion, that invisible but palpable force in our lives that asks us to look deeper into ourselves in order to see what we need and want from our living. Maya Spitzer, my son, is six years old and loves art. It is and has been a blessing to watch him make his art. He has reminded me that for a tender time in our lives we are able to create without the restraints of self criticism, a fleeting time where we are free to let the line be a line and a space be the whole, without the fear of failing or the thought of a “product,” a time where we are free to simply enjoy our ability to create.”